The invention is in the field of the physics of data storage and computation, and more particularly, this invention relates to the ability to store magnetic information in antiferromagnetic nanostructures.
The ability to record digital information in the magnetic orientation of magnetic grains is at the heart of data storage in information technology devices. For several decades there has been exponential progress in reducing the effective area of individual magnetic elements. This basic idea has been applied to magnetic hard disk media, to magnetic tape media, and most recently to solid-state implementations such as spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory. At present all of these devices utilize a ferromagnetic interaction between the magnetic atoms that constitute the active device element that stores the information bit. In disk and tape drives the magnetic information is read out by magnetoresistive sensors, which sense the magnetic field emanating from the ferromagnetic bit. Writing of the magnetic elements is achieved by creating a strong localized magnetic field from a write-head. In solid-state magnetic devices the magnetic bit is typically part of a magnetoresistive tunneling junction, which can be used for reading and writing the information.